VOLUME 4 - GETTING TO KNOW THE REPUBLICANS RUNING FOR STARK COUNTY COMMISSIONER (THE BERNABEI VACATED SEAT)

MAKE YOUR OWN DECISION

SCPR VIDEO SERIES 

ON

REPUBLICAN PRIMARY CANDIDATES

BILL SMITH       DAVE MUNGO

MOTIVATION FOR RUNNING
 Smith
Prepared After 14  Years as Township Trustee

Mungo
God's Calling

VIDEO

CANDIDATES IN THEIR OWN WORDS

One of the more interesting elective offices on the Stark County political landscape is that of Stark County commissioner.

County commissioner is an office that Stark Countians look to when something goes wrong in government functioning within the county whether or not the commissioners have direct authority to deal with the problem.

Many if not most times, they do not.

But the can and do in "bully pulpit" fashion lean on the following list of elected officials especially on fiscal matters as the commissioners do have authority (except, perhaps with the judges) to control the budgets the the below listed elective offices.

Most authority in county government is in the hands of those elected to head various departments of county government, to wit:

• the Stark County auditor (Alan Harold, a Republican),
• the Stark County coroner ) (P.S. Murthy, a Democrat),
• the Stark County engineer (Keith Bennett, a Democrat),
• the Stark County prosecutor (John Ferrero, a Democrat),
• the Stark County recorder (Rick Campbell, a Democrat), and
• the Stark County treasurer (Alex Zumbar, a Republican)
  

 And, of course, there are the Stark County Common Pleas court judgeships:

• General Division:
  • John Haas, a Democrat,
  • Taryn Heath, a Democrat,
  • Frank Forchione, a Democrat,
  • Kristin Farmer, a Republican, and
  • Chryssa Hartnett, a Democrat
• Family Division,
  • Jim Jones, a Republican,
  • Mike Howard, a Republican,
  • Rosemarie Hall, a Republican,
• Probate Division,
  • Dixie Park, a Republican
    

The most compelling of the two commissioner seats up for grabs in this election cycle is the one to fill the commissioner spot vacated by Tom Bernabei when he became mayor of Canton on January 1, 2016.

On Wednesday, February 17th,  The Stark County Political Report sat down with the two Republican candidates in the contest and peppered them with questions designed to assist Republican primary voters in deciding whom to vote for in the upcoming in less than 30 days primary election of March 15, 2016.

Early voting is already underway.

As a SCPR sidenote, The Report URGES readers to avail themselves of an opportunity to meet with candidates Mungo and Smith together with all other Stark County political subdivision candidates for office in the Republican and Democratic primary elections and, of course, in the November general election by attending a Canton area League of Women Voters candidates forum (LINK) to be held at Downtown Campus (formerly Timken Senior High School) of the newly restructured McKinley Senior High School on Thursday, March 10, 2016, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

In this particular series, The Report will be publishing in digestible bites the nearly one and one-half hour videotaped interview of February 17th of Republican commissioner candidates Mungo and Smith.

Today's blog focuses on the candidates' responses to the SCPR posed question:  What motivated you to run for Stark County commissioner?  And, whether or not the respective candidate plans on being a part-time or full-time commissioner.

Here are links to prior blogs in this series:

• Candidates' narrative on their backgrounds, Friday February 19th,  (LINK),
• Candidates on values/experience, Tuesday, February 23rd (LINK),
• Candidates on the role of private sector in county government (LINK),

CANDIDATE BACKGROUND

First, candidate Mungo's self-published background document:



Next up, candidate Smith's self-published background document:



LINKS TO CANDIDATES' SOCIAL MEDIA/WEBSITE

Candidate Dave Mungo

• Website LINK
• Facebook LINK

Candidate Bill Smith

• Facebook page LINK

VIDEO

VOLUME 4 - WHAT IS THE MOVTIVATION FOR RUNNING?